Television Personality Faces Criticism for Exactly What Every Television Personality Does
When Calling Out Fakeness Becomes an Attack on Professional Personas
Stacey Solomon, television personality and lifestyle influencer, is being called ‘incredibly fake’ and ‘insufferable’ by critics who apparently just discovered that people on television present curated versions of themselves. This is genuinely the most shocking revelation since people learned that celebrities wear makeup. She’s not authentically behaving in an authentic way on a medium built on curating appearance. Alert the presses.
The problem with calling out someone’s fakeness when they work in television is that you’re criticizing someone for doing their job. TV personalities are paid to present a version of themselves. That’s literally what television is: controlled performance. So calling Stacey Solomon fake is like calling a mime false for not actually being trapped in an invisible box. Yeah, no shit. That’s the entire premise.
The Performance Economy and Authenticity Theater
Here’s what’s funny: Stacey Solomon is criticized for being fake while every other television personality performs their own version of authenticity. The difference is her performance style is more visibly curated. Other influencers are equally fake; they’re just better at hiding the construction. That’s not authenticity. That’s just more effective performance.
Bill Burr said something about how people present themselves differently in different contexts, and that’s literally everyone on camera. Stacey just does it with more obvious enthusiasm and less pretense of spontaneity. In a weird way, that might make her more authentic: at least she’s honest that she’s performing. Everyone else is just performing better.
The real issue people have with Stacey isn’t that she’s fakeit’s that she’s fake in a way that’s easily recognizable. She’s enthusiastic. She’s styled. She’s produced. Unlike influencers who present ‘candid lifestyle shots’ that actually took three hours to stage and filter, she’s at least not pretending to be candid. She’s just being television.
The Insufferable Part That Everyone Has
Being called ‘insufferable’ is interesting because it’s the criticism leveled at anyone sufficiently visible and popular. Insufferable means ‘I don’t like your energy or aesthetic, and I’m expressing that as moral judgment instead of taste preference.’ Everyone on television could be called insufferable by people who don’t like their particular brand of performance. That’s not criticism. That’s just preference stated aggressively.
Jerry Seinfeld said something about how observation reveals truth, and the truth is: Stacey Solomon is doing what television demands. She’s presenting a version of herself that’s been produced for cameras. The only difference between her and every other person on television is visibility and audience taste. Some people like her performance. Some people don’t. Both reactions are valid. Neither proves anything about her actual authenticity.
Amy Schumer talks about how women especially get criticized for being ‘too much,’ which is another way of saying their authentic self doesn’t match what critics think authentic should be. Stacey’s getting that treatment: her energy is too high, her enthusiasm is too visible, her production is too obvious. That’s not evidence she’s fake. That’s evidence critics prefer subtler fakeness.
The Authenticity Paradox
What’s genuinely absurd is the expectation that television personality should somehow be less fake. The entire medium is about controlled presentation. You can’t be authentically authentic on television because the moment cameras turn on, you’re performing for them. Stacey knows this. She leans into it. That might actually be more honest than influencers who perform ‘real authenticity’ while every frame has been artfully composed.
Ron White said something like ‘people are people,’ which is the thing everyone forgets when calling out influencers: they’re people doing a job. The job is television personality. Television requires performance. Criticizing someone for performing while on television is like criticizing a chef for making food. That’s the fucking job.
Stacey Solomon will probably survive this criticism. The people criticizing her are mostly people who weren’t her audience anyway. Her actual audience probably appreciates the energy and production. The rest of us can just ignore her, which is a choice critics should consider sometimes: not consuming content you dislike and then complaining about how fake it is. That’s the real inauthenticity.
Auf Wiedersehen, amigos.